2002: The Learning Curve by John Foulcher

The Learning Curve based on the poetry collection by John Foulcher.  Huitker Movement Theatre (HMT) directed by George Huitker at Theatre 3, June 19-30.  Bookings: 6257 1950.

    I felt thoroughly immersed in a Barrier Reef night of the big spawn watching this group movement imagist representation of Foulcher's new book of verse, launched just before the show opened last Wednesday.  41 sticky and confrontational poems narrate the life, death and resurrection of a Catholic secondary school, all in 90 minutes. 

    Life is sex and sexuality, in action and in denial.  Death is not only of natural causes, but sometimes the result of human neglect and macho stupidity.  As a cynical atheist from way back, I really had to wonder why anyone bothers about God's intentions any more in the face of the fact of our animal nature and the regular tragedy of death. 

    I noted that a joke by one teacher about leaving the Church and going over to the Anglicans received a roar of laughter.  Huitker, Foulcher and HMT cast, crew and front-of-house are closely connected with Radford College.  Does this mean that the school represented on stage is a satire at one remove from the daily experiences of staff and students in this apparently upright College, with its neat uniforms and landscaped grounds next door to the University?  I just wondered.
   
    From a theatrical viewpoint, Huitker's work in choreographing the movement and creating imagery seems to me too constrained by the need to maintain the narrative.  Perhaps he should now move out into a wider theatrical scene.  His work is interesting, often original, but needs more discipline of form if it is to match the best professional work we nowadays often see around Australia.

    For example, I would love to see Huitker spend some time with, say, Bangarra Dance Company: then I think we would see a shift into stronger allegorical and interpretative movement, where narrative and emotional messages meld.  In The Learning Curve it is Foulcher's writing which holds the piece together, and the performance is well worth seeing as a result.  But there is more to come from HMT, I hope.

© Frank McKone, Canberra